Note: I originally wrote this waaaaaaaay back in the beginning of October. It sat as a draft for a while because I needed photos of my art projects. Then I couldn't find said photos and thought I had deleted them off of my phone. Well, I found them, so here is my super late insect post.
In St. Louis, we are blessed with an AMAZING
free zoo. I am also blessed to work at a center that encourages us to take field trips, introducing our preschoolers to the community and other special topics. Last Tuesday, we went to our zoo for a class on insects, so our theme for the whole week was creepy crawlies. I have a class of mostly girls so I was expecting a lot of "ew!" or "Bugs are gross!" but they actually really enjoyed it.
Throughout the week we touched on what makes an insect an insect, why a spider isn't an insect, and the life cycle of a butterfly. We've had several monarch butterflies visiting our garden recently, so this was a very appropriate time. Here's a glimpse at our activities:
Books
I always just go through my local library's section and pick out non-fiction books that I think they'll enjoy from the stacks. These usually include more pictures than words, just because my kids are only 4. But here are some of my favorite fiction stories that I read:
Buzz! by Eileen Spinelli
This is a super cute story about a bee that LOVES to fly but sees an article in the paper with a headline that says bees can't fly. Then she has an identity crisis!
The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
If you haven't read this adorable story by Eric Carle, then where have you been?! I love this story because of its predictive text. It's great for my kids to help me read along ("Oh, you're not big enough!") It also lends itself for one of my favorite art projects of the whole year (see below). When I taught Pre-K, I also used it to introduce time and sequencing.
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
OK, if you haven't read this book you have been living under a rock. This is one of the most recognizable children's books and my kids LOVE it. My aunt gave me a big board book version that sits in my book nook for the kids to read all the time. That cute little caterpillar is irresistible!!
Art
Half of my kids are 4, with the rest turning 4 by June. The teacher in the 3's room worked very hard with them on their fine motor skills like cutting and coloring and a lot of them are pros at it already. I did my insect unit with my last group in the spring, when my kids were all already 4, many past the 4 and a half mark, so I was interested to see how my kids would do with some of my art projects.
This bumblebee was made by tracing a paper plate on yellow paper and using a compass to draw a smaller circle, about 4-5 inches in diameter on black paper. They had to cut each of those out, and then glue their stripes on. Most of them did pretty well with the cutting of the circles -- a tricky concept when you've only been using scissors for about a year. I cut the stripes out using a paper cutter and they glued those on, along with eyes (punched out with a paper puncher). The most difficult part for them, I think, was doing the wings because they had to draw them and then cut them out. A difficult task for four-year-olds because of its inherent abstract concept.
The grouchy ladybug is one of my favorites we do all year. I take a picture of them making an angry face and then print them out. They make their own body, spots, legs, and antennae. Just like the wings, this project can be difficult because I didn't trace anything for them to cut out. I'm impressed at what they did all on their own!
Math, Science, and Language
I found these
insect erasers from Oriental Trading and use them to work on sorting, patterning, counting, etc. Such a GREAT bargain and the kids loved it.
We also learned about the butterfly life cycle. You can find this craft in my
insects unit on TPT. I assembled the butterflies beforehand because I was out of town. If a sub hadn't been in charge of this activity, I probably would have traced the shape and had them cut it out/glue it together.
Finally, we made name caterpillars. These are super simple if you have a circle punch (I bought mine at Hobby Lobby with a 40% off coupon, so it was, like, $3). I do a lot of activities with their names because it's the first word they can read on a regular basis. They also get super excited when they can read the names of the other kids in the class.
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